St. John’s runs Duke ragged

NEW YORK -- Teams that beat Duke have reason to celebrate. Teams that blow Duke out of the building should be able to party all night.

So, how long will the St. John's players be allowed to celebrate Sunday's 93-78 victory over No. 3 Duke at Madison Square Garden -- a game that wasn't as close as the final score indicated?

"Coach Lav said we had two hours to celebrate, and then we have to get ready for Rutgers," senior forward Justin Burrell said, referring to first-year coach Steve Lavin and the Red Storm's next opponent on Wednesday.

Two hours? It will take longer than that just to go over the highlight plays of a game that St. John's had won by halftime.

"I felt like we were ready. The guys wanted to play this game," Duke guard Nolan Smith said. "We wanted to be here, but they came out from the jump ball and kicked our butts."

It wasn't that St. John's (12-8) beat the Blue Devils (19-2), it was the way it happened.

St. John's was finishing a stretch of eight straight games against ranked teams. This win gave them three wins in that span. It was enough to have Lavin waving his arms to the crowd at a media timeout in the second half.

The Red Storm, who had lost three straight and five of six, took control early and had a 46-25 lead at halftime. Duke, which came into the game shooting 40 percent from 3-point range, missed its first 10 shots from behind the arc and finished the first half 1-for-13 from long range.

Dwight Hardy had 26 points for St. John's, and Justin Brownlee had 20 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Paris Horne added 15 points and six assists.

St. John's shot 58.2 percent for the game (32 of 55) and was 26 of 33 from the free-throw line.